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Denver, 1:06 PM
Mon Nov 9
36 posts in the last 24 hours
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08/12/09
Anyways though nice to see UAVs making it into the game. Though wake me up when I can call in a hellfire strike from a Predator / Reaper.
08/11/09
06/12/09
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06/12/09
That's the sign on bonus. It used to be a lot lower. I remember they raised it to $10,000 a couple years back and now it's 20 or 30. Who knows what it was before that...
All I know is that right when I walked into a National Guard base they have a huge check on the wall that says "$20,000" and "Your name here!". lol
06/12/09
04/12/09
Countless books have been written (for profit) about this war and it's battles.
At least one television program, Generation Kill, plus countless television representations and recreations of various incident have been filmed about this war . . . all for profit.
In all of that, nary a voice was raised in concern about whether it was "too soon", or whether the content was pro or anti war.
But the moment you announce you are going to make a video game about the very same content, suddenly everyone is up in arms like it is a cardinal sin.
Worse still, video gamers are actually up in arms over it.
As gamers we bitch and moan and groan and complain all the time that the rest of the world does not take gaming seriously . . . that the rest of the world refuses to look at gaming as art, or a proper media art form that can seriously, and soberly address the condition of humanity.
So out of the blue someone finally decides they are going to do just that; address one of the somber events in our time, and what are video gamers (in general) first reaction?
We cry like little bitches and we discriminate ourselves from taking our proper place in the pantheon of modern media.
How the hell can we honestly complain about the likes of Fox News taking the sexuality of Mass Effect, or the Jack Thompson's taking the violence of Grand Theft Auto out of context, and dismissing the adult perspective from those equations, when we turn right around and do the same thing ourselves?
In essence what many of you are saying here, is that it is okay to treat games with kid gloves.
Well you can only have it one way. In the grown up world, you don't get to have it both ways. Either games are just for kids and should be absent of any and all adult themed content, rationalizations and scenarios . . . or games are a true media art form, and as such, deserve to be treated as such, even by gamers, when games attempt to reach out and create exposition on the human condition.
You can only have it one way or the other, you do not get to have it both ways.
No one was crying and moaning and bitching about all the books that covered the war were published. No one was complaining when all the un-Godly amount of television was/is being produced and aired that featured content, scenarios and situations from the war.
So why is everyone complaining about the fact that video games have finally stepped up to the plate and decided to prove to the world that it can be a truly adult medium as well???
The way I see it, it was not too early for books and it was not too early for television, and even judging by some of the songs that has surfaced over the last six years, it was not even too early for music.
To now say that it is too early for video games, makes us hypocrites. If we were not complaining when all the other media which was surfacing about the war, and suddenly we are complaining about a video game doing the same thing, that makes us hypocrites - plain and simple. And there is no worse sin than hypocrisy. It's not the Fox News and the Jack Thompsons being the hypocrites now, it is us being hypocrites to ourselves. How sharper than a serpents tooth, indeed.
And even more disturbing is the fact that the gaming press looks to be doing as more to promote this particular brand of hypocrisy than even the mainstream media; who really have not picked up this story yet (I guess for once, they have got more important things in the world to focus on than gaming).
We have the opportunity here to prove that video games are the real deal; the first true art form of the 21st Century. We have a new generation of game developers looking to push those envelops, push those perceptions of the media, and prove that. I say for once we stop selling ourselves short and embrace it wholeheartedly . . . and not just when it is convenient to embrace.
04/11/09
The US military, and the militaries of most western nations (as well as those of our clients around the world), is a tool of Anglo-American hegemony. Period. This is not a knock against any particular soldier, as each man should be judged on his own merits, and people enlist for a variety of reasons, with varying levels of education about the nature of the military, or the nature of those holding its reins.
What about people making asses of themselves online from outside the US, India for example. Are they doing so thanks to the "protection" of the US military?
Full of yourself much, Mundy?
Again, give me a fucking break.
04/12/09
04/12/09
If you retired to a nice cabin in the mountains, and lived happily ever after, free of all the incredibly civilized world - I would still wake up in a free country tomorrow. And neither you or anyone else from overseas would have much to do with that.
Of course, I must hasten to add: please excuse my arrogant attempt at inflating our own fight for self- determination within our borders as being beyond a mere incidental benefit of the United States taking 200 years to finally set aside common law when it comes to presidential privilege regarding national security issues. But there you have it - I just am that arrogant and shameless. Simply cannot help it.
04/11/09
04/11/09
You will, you'll also have your group of idiots that try to be the Americans and kill Iraqis and shout obscenities through the TV, damning Terrorists.
Is that not the idea?
04/11/09
04/11/09
....yeah, it probably wouldn't sell well..
04/11/09
THIS. MOTHERFUCKERS.
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04/14/09
That would be a more honest way to tell the story, imo.
04/11/09
Man I love this quote. Its so American. I was in the Marine Corps and did 2(and a half sort of) tours in Iraq and I'm sure this Gunny did his far share of time out there too. The funny thing is I spent a lot of time working with Iraqi's and not so much time shooting them. Some of the people in Fallujah were in fact foriegn fighters who came to Iraq to fit the terrorist description. However many of them were just Iraqis, some former Iraqi military, who just don't like the idea of being invaded by a foriegn country and being told they had to leave their home town. Those people aren't terrorists, they are Iraqi patriots. They are the Wolverines from Red Dawn, they are what I hope I'd be if the US was invaded.
What I fear the most is a game that plays out the way Gunny Mundy seems to want it to. With bad ass Americans fighting the good fight against the evil terrorists in Iraq. That whole mindset is a fallacy. It wasn't good versus evil, war never is. The fact is that Konami will not publish a realistic portrayal of this battle. Use google to figure out what kind of things went down during Al Fajr to get an idea of just how crazy it was.
04/11/09
Props to you. The thing that upsets me the most about this kind of thing is how blatantly it's put up as a "teaching experience". Gag.
04/11/09
man i'm glad you said that. this is exactly what i told my (now formerly) über pro-war family. "if some military from another country invaded your neighborhood, what would you do?"
04/11/09
04/12/09
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04/12/09
"...that might not be the way it seems at the time."
Mm. I had this discussion with my niece a while back. She said: yeah, but how do you know if jumping on the trampoline after 9pm will actually be harmful?
And I say: well, if you listen to your parents, and do as they say (most of the time), you'll grow up and have lots of kids and live long in the country.
And she says: oh, really. You don't know that! And I don't want that either! I want to be a princess!
And I say: well, yes. But you must understand that your parents, who I am willing to insist are just about getting their lives on track now, after having fumbled around and doing all kinds of stupid things up till now, and therefore will have some wisdom you do not see the value of yet. So even though you don't see the immediate benefit of not jumping on the trampoline after 9pm, you must take it on good faith that it has a deeper meaning.
And she's really clever, so she says: such as teaching me to structure my day, not overextend myself, and enjoy just the time I have without sulking all day when I have to do other things?
So I say: ...ah, yes, something like that.
So she says: but if we travel along that thought (curse me for spelling out my platitudes so she can hear all day!), then why do you still want to play all day! Obviously, you didn't get to play enough when you were a kid, and now you're just trying to make me the same way as you!
So I say: um.
And she says: and it doesn't even make sense! Ma comes home and will read for us in half an hour, and I only need five minutes to brush my teeth. And I want to greet her when she comes, instead of staying awake until she does!
So I say: very well, but remember that it was your parents and their infinite stu.. wisdom that allowed you to arrive at that convincing argument. But I nevertheless must insist, for your own good, that you are to be in bed by nine.
So she says: *bllllleeeeeee*
..always so sad - you just cannot argue with kids like that. They don't know we know their own good, you know. And that there's a meaning with everything, obviously. Aah, the beauty of a temper tantrum. Conceptually it is the birth of wisdom.. inside my head, especially if I ignore all the facts. It's the circle of life (*enter hollywood music*).
04/12/09
Do you have the right to defend your neighbors house that you weren't invited to?
That depends on what the grown- ups say.
04/12/09
04/14/09
..not sure if I should, or could.. but here goes anyway. We have a strange tendency in the west to seek justifications for our actions outside of the merely practical ones. I got to know an Iraqi refugee trying to get a job after he escaped Bagdad in 2001, and he had this to say about invasions and war - it was admirably honest in a way: countries invade others because they can, and it keeps their interests. Political considerations one way or the other, countries also use their non- military influence which can be just as devastating, he said. And he had lived through both kinds, picking up the US involvement with Iraq from the 1990s with embargos and degrees of support, and all the way up to the official invasion.
There was no regret on his part for supporting the wrong ideology (of course - since he had a very different outlook on Baathism as a regional pan- arabic solution than most of us), only disappointment as far as the international involvement was concerned. "Dealing with power where it exists" was a theme that went through his explanations, I noticed.
As for the future? He was going back to his wife and kids with his newly certified doctor's degree (earned his original one at the university of Bagdad, which had no status outside of Iraq due to various political decisions), when things would cool down. Then make the best of it for his country - again.
We discussed my situation at the time, and reached the conclusion that I certainly had been given a better hand of cards. Was he bitter, I asked? And he scoffed - yes, he admitted he was bitter. What had Saddam done that made the country have to go through what it had? It was as if he had to suffer for the arrogance of the west, and our short- sighted solutions. Perhaps this time, he concluded, the result would be an Iraq integrated into the international community, with trade and political acceptance. But at this point he was almost snarling.
My point was this - we are treating the middle east as a variable in our own visions. In my analogy, we are the parents, underestimating the "children", forcing our externally applied solutions on them, insisting with our position of power that it is for their own good. And that is the nature of our justifications, and so our version of history. They are not practical and honest, such as: we can do this, so we will in our own interest. Instead they are inherently skewed - an internal and politically local necessity for us becomes at best a practical hurdle for the inferior military power to accommodate. And this is what these early attempts to write history represents.
Beyond that, I think the irony of the "protect your neighbour's house against their own will" line might've terminally affected my sense of humour, and I was probably just making a sour quip.
04/11/09
Might be educational, though.
04/11/09
this. They could make an MMO out of it, the "timesink" could be the sitting there, doing nothing, for hours.
04/12/09
Desert Bus 2: Fallujah?
04/11/09
I'm interested in it for the setting. Not for the 'is this sensitive to vets' experience' aspect. Mostly because the 'respect the vets' and 'good game' seem to go oddly hand in hand, so if its a game that ends up garnering a lot of respect and love because its so good, chances are it did pretty well on the politically correct front, otherwise there would have been gamers, outside of the media, disgusted with the content.
I'd say we're still a pretty good bunch as gamers. If its a shitty game, we wont play it, and itll flop. If its a really good but terribly offensive game, it'll succeed, but won't be 'teh next haloz or killzones', it'll be that game that gets passed off in seedy alleyways. If its loved by all, well, we'll end up with a hit on our hands.
04/11/09
Real war isn't pretty, it isn't politically correct and it isn't entertaining; but I really want this game to get as close to real as possible without be dreadfully boring, or with it plagued by bad gameplay.
04/11/09
I can't wait for the 'BATTLEFIELDS OF WWI - TRENCH WARFARE DUTY' game
Where you have to sit in the mud for two weeks (real time, better hope your xbox doesnt crap out) but at any moment (its random, for realism) you'll hear a whistle blow meaning its time to go 'over the top'.
Miss the whistle blow, you end up in jail for insubordination and its permanent game over. Go over the top, theres a 75 percent chance that you're going to eat a bullet. Which, in this game, even on the easiest setting, can kill you.
Did I mention that even though you can die so easily to all the fixed guns you're going to have to be charging, that YOUR weapon jams up a sixth of the time and you constantly have to press random buttons whenever it does trying to get the mud out, and the weapon working again? Oh yeah, and about the accuracy... well, there isn't any.
imma submitting this to acti right now.
04/11/09
04/11/09
A game like this should be made, and I believe its a better time than ever to do so.
With games based around world war II, how many people are going "Well Damn, that war was so unjustified" or "How Could we have avoided it?" as opposed to "GAH I RANK UP!!" or " I GOTTA GET MORE KILLZ"? Almost nobody pays attention to the controversies and atrocities of WWII outside of the obvious slaughtering of the Jewish People. But with a game like this, and a generation so integrated with the technological medium, I believe its important for a game like this and other games similiar to it to be made. And as someone stated previously, these games should not be made on the premises of "fun", these games should be made on the premises of an "Experience"(which is not to be confused with "Entertainment".) People need to realize what really goes on in these war scenarios, and distinguish that, well, yes war games are fun(being one of my favorite genres as a gamer) but that the character I am playing can pretty much be a simulation of an actual person in the given scenario that Im playing. People need to realize that there are others making the decision whether or not to kill the next person they see, and that such decisions are not as easy as Aiming down the sight and pressing R trigger. As gamers I believe it is our responsibility, more than anyone, to educate ourselves a little in the genres we play that relate to real world issues in order to at least have a bit of gratitude for the sacrifices that were made for use to even be able to play such a game. This game will bring into light a long controversial war from a not so often potrayed perspective, and I believe its better to have it come out now as it is still an issue and bring awareness to not just gamers but to anyone who feels entitled to play this game.
Of course, this is all under the assumption that the developers don;t fuck this game up.
04/11/09
:) my sentiments exactly.
04/11/09
04/11/09
We make a game out of EVERYTHING.
Get over yourself.
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04/11/09
But does that mean we should?
04/11/09
Time for us to stop being so hypocritical.
04/11/09
04/11/09
Do you think we shouldn't document things.
Take 9 11 as a case point, there was a film made about it. A film, like a game, is a form of media created not only to entertain but to express a view and enable an audience to experience and understand something.
Now lets look at games. They are more immerse because the player chooses the outcome. As in war, the player faces the consequences of what he chooses to do. Sure there is a huge difference to what these comparisons are but to educate someone on the horror of war should someone have to go to war or should a fully interactive medium be used to teach the person about the terrible things that are seen out there.
I for one thing a game, if done tastefully, could be used to show people the panic of being in the towers on 9 11 and can be used to show people the brutality and horror of war.
In other words; yes, we should. But we have to do it right.
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XD
04/11/09
04/11/09
I'm just saying that they didn't decide where they got deployed, and I'm sure most of them signed up wanting to protect their country.
04/11/09
We kill 600 civilians because we lost thousands of people in one day. I say we bomb them back to the stone age, of course, that would be an upgrade. I say we turn that place into the worlds biggest parking lot.
04/11/09
I agree with the war because men whose job it is to have the Intel have decided that Iraq was/is/going to be a hotbed for terrorist action against the rest of the world. On top of this, we now have good placement if things against Iran were to ever escalate. But statements of "bomb everything" make the entire thing look bad. Yes, bombing everything would be the simple solution, but it is one that is not availabe because there are innocents who did not ask for any of this involved.
04/11/09
The Stone Age, an improvement? Iraq was the most progressive nation in the Middle East before we invaded. It had the best medical facilities of nay Muslim nation. Also, Iraqi civilians didn't do shit to kill anyone in the 9/11 attacks. Iraq had NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11. That was done by Al Qaeda, a guerrilla force that operates primarily out of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Seriously, dude, can you possibly be any more ignorant?
04/11/09
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04/12/09
All media outlets bullshit here and there. But the people seem to bullshit more. Why don't you back up your claim?
Be wary of everything you hear from everyone.
04/12/09
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04/11/09
When I first read the article on G4 I got the same idea. Now, if in sixty years a game about the Iraq War would to be made, it would be understandable. But now when Osama and al-Qaeda haven't even been taken down, it's disturbing.
04/11/09
04/11/09
I was thinking the same thing. And then I realized this is why Call of Duty 4 did not suffer any controversy. Half the people playing the game didn't even realize that the backdrop of its story had to do with recent times, because of the fictional names.
A wise decision, but then again this game is gaining alot of window time because of its controversy, at least here on kotaku and a few of the other game sites I traverse. Such controversy might result in a few more sales. (See Grand Theft Auto)
04/11/09
@Pornosaur:
The fact that one game is fictional with semi-resemblance to actual occurrences and the other is trying to be some sort of documentary of actual events makes a huge difference.
Men and women actually died over there in those real events. It makes all the difference in the world.
It bothers me that Konami is probably asking themselves "do we make it realistic one hit and you're dead or would that level of realism detract too much from the game aspect?" "Do we show frightened American soldiers firing upon mixes of militants and civilians, and get the level of death and destruction done right, or do we dial it down so that it's an experience that can be stomached by the general gaming populace?"
If they are having to ask themselves those questions, then why are they not asking themselves "is it too soon for a simulation of those actual events?"
04/11/09